A
Message of Hopeby
Jonathan Shepard

Defining
Benjamin Creme in a way that makes sense to the average reader poses
some difficulties.

Fine Artist, writer, lecturer, environmentalist, historian, esotericist,
magazine editor, political prognosticator, international economics
guru to a growing confederation of followers, humorist (a term which
doesn't quite capture his quirky, often outrageously comic perspective
on life). A learned student of philosophy and the Ancient Wisdom.
Indeed, labels don't work very well: But Creme's message is nothing
if not serious.

For the last couple of decades Creme, a peripatetic Scot, now in his
seventies, has made it his business to edit a most thought-provoking
monthly magazine (Share International), write a number of searingly
provocative volumes of the Big Picture variety, and appear before
literally thousands of radio and T.V. audiences in at least four continents.

Interviewers range from devoted acolytes to T.V's Morton Downey, host
of a rough-and-tumble, no-holds-barred, New York-based syndicated
Talk Show, generally conceded to be one of the sleaziest bottom-feeders
to emerge on the American daytime television scene.

Indeed, during Creme's now-legendary appearance on the Downey Show
several years ago, he was treated (initially) as the human pinata
to be badgered and humiliated in front of a live T.V. audience, only
to wind up being accorded unprecedented respect and courtesy as his
message began to sink in with his rambunctious host. The show was
one of T.V.'s all-time amazing talk show performances.

Not bad, considering the down side of Creme's message is pretty heavy.
Indeed, Creme's major concerns hardly constitute a stroll on the beach
in the moonlight.

Creme says those in positions of power and influence in the world
today, the fabled one percent who "own everything," perceive a threat
to themselves and their way of life in the coming end to the status
quo.

Such people, says Creme, will do anything to maintain their positions
of power and control in a collapsing and bankrupted political, economic
and social order.

But the times cry out for change, and maintaining the status quo won't
work, according to Creme, because in the evolutionary process of human
existence on earth there is "always flux, movement, change, and evolution."
Maybe even revolution if the global hot spots, Bosnia, Lebanon, Chechnia,
and South Central L. A. get seriously out of hand.

Preserve the status quo? What about the nearly forty million starving
to death around the world - needlessly - and the 1.2 billion living
in dire conditions of poverty - needlessly? While the wealthy few,
to repeat one of Creme's favored quoted sources, "parade their wealth."
Do the average citizens anywhere in the world want to preserve any
of that? Or pay for the consequences in terms of war and instability?

What about the developed countries? The West pigs out, scarfing up
three-fourths of the world's food resources and purchasing 83% of
the world's non-food consumer goods.

Meanwhile, the average third world citizen lives on less than $100
a year, and half a billion souls possess not a thing on this earth.

All this occurs, says Creme, as the solutions to this global calamity
stare us in the face. We possess, today, right now, according to the
official statistics of respected international organizations dealing
with the issue, 110 % of the world's food requirements. This food
"surplus," soaked in pesticides, nibbled by rodents, sits rotting
in storage at taxpayers' expense.

What can we do? "Share," Creme says, "or destroy all life on earth."
This, he believes, is "the choice before humanity."

THE CHANGES:

In the last half-dozen years political totalitarianism has taken some
major hits. Across the political spectrum the dictators, the despots,
the generals and the presidents-for-life have either coughed up political
power or, at the very least, come under intense and witheringly critical
public scrutiny.

Now, says Creme, "economic totalitarianism" is next to go. The demise
of the Soviet Union has, Creme says, led Western leaders to assume
that capitalism has triumphed forever. This, Creme says, is not the
case. Capitalism and the "totalitarianism" of market forces has "only
outlived communism" by a few years.

How so? Creme suggests we keep a weather eye cocked toward the Tokyo
Stock Exchange which has coughed up almost sixty percent of its value
in the past few years. How does this affect Americans? United States
national debt, "now greater than the sum total of third world indebtedness,"
is 40% subsidized by Japan. "What do you think is going to happen"
Creme asks, "when Japan goes down?"

Global instabilities, stock market gyrations, economic imbalances
and lately, Government shut-downs are not unfathomable mysteries,
understood only by international bankers and corporate globalists.
Rather, these socially unacceptable conditions are a consequence of
rampant materialism, wanton resource depletion, the ideology of market
forces ...and simple greed. "Any government which blindly follows
market forces," says Creme, "will be led to destruction." A Tokyo
shares collapse will, he believes, reverberate around the world and
expose the casino-like nature of our economic institutions.

In which country of the world, Creme asks, does the system - any system
- provide adequate food for its people? In America, still the world's
wealthiest country, over thirty million now live below the poverty
line and the homeless line our streets. "Which nation," says Creme,
"provides adequate housing? Education? Health care?"

Planet Earth's environmental imbalances, increasing levels of species
destruction and rapid depletion to exhaustion of the world's natural
resources, Creme says, are a reflection of our economic imbalances.

Moreover, according toCreme, our destructive environmental practices
have now reached such severe proportions that they are impacting the
world's weather patterns everywhere with increasingly devastating
effect. Case in point, the recent "Blizzard of '96."

THE COSMIC BITS:

Is there an upside to Creme's gloomy analysis? We are, he says, at
the cusp of an extraordinary period of political, cultural, economic,
social, scientific and religious transformation. The "New Age," heralded
by some, scoffed at and feared by others, is, according to Creme,
a scientifically based "astronomical fact."

As our solar system moves out of Pisces the peoples of the earth will
shed the grim Piscean energies and exhausted institutions which have
so divided the world into quarreling political, economic and religious
entities. These energies, says Creme, have outlived their usefulness
and are now "quite dangerous."

The incoming energies of Aquarius will bring synthesis, fusing and
blending resulting in a heightened consciousness of shared ideas,
aspirations and visions. Since the seeds have already been sown, there
is, according to Creme, "nothing we can do about it except make the
most of it." These new energies, he says, are not predicated on a
"one world government" or a "new world religion," but rather on the
evolution and transformation of our existing and historical political,
economic, social and religious traditions.

For millennia, according to esoteric tradition, mankind has been guided
by the Perfected Old Souls, the Enlightened Masters of the Ancient
Wisdom, the Elder Brothers of Humanity, the Lords of Compassion, the
Avatars, the Teachers, the Manifesters of Light and Love upon our
planet. Their names shine through history and we know them as Krishna,
Hermes, The Buddha, Confucius, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed....

Extraordinary men, gently teaching and guiding humanity in how better
to live our lives and manage our affairs, one of whom emerges at the
beginning of each cosmic cycle, to guide and inspire, age after age.
According to esoteric tradition (most specifically the works of H.
P. Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey, both of whom predicted the outlines
of this story many years ago) there has never been an age without
such a Teacher.

Well, what about now? There is, indeed, a growing realization among
many thoughtful people that political, financial, environmental and
spiritual crises threaten the health and well-being of our people.
Our over-populated, war-ravaged, resource-stripped, toxic-soaked,
virus ridden, burned, baked, blasted and profoundly unhappy planet
is in need of some corrective readjustments.

Mankind could, no doubt, benefit from a little "guidance and inspiration,"
maybe even a cosmically inspired kick up the backside....

Since 1977, according to the claims of Creme and numerous others,
Maitreya, World Teacher, Avatar of the Next Millennia, has been living
quite openly as an ordinary man in the impoverished Pakistani immigrant
community hard up against London's opulent heartbeat-of-the-world
financial district (nice symbolism there). Maitreya is, says Creme,
"not a religious leader but an educator in the broadest sense."

Indeed, some of Maitreya's earliest commentaries on the human condition
were pithy. To say the least. A sample:

"How
can you be content with the modes within which you now live: when
millions starve and die in squalor; when the rich parade their wealth
before the poor; when each man is his neighbor's enemy; when no
man trusts his brother? For how long must you live thus, My friends?
For how long can you support this degradation?" (Sept. 12, 1979).

Good questions. Since 1988 Maitreya has reportedly spoken publicly
on nearly one hundred occasions, in over fifty countries, quietly,
without fanfare or (it would appear) even advance publicity, addressing
audiences of hundreds, occasionally even thousands on issues of the
day.

MAITREYA AND THE MEDIA

Creme is not without his detractors, to be sure. How could a story
such as his possibly avoid controversy? Fundamentalist Christian sects
for example, have deep doctrinal problems with much of Creme's thesis.

Nor has The Vatican (officially) found anything in Creme's claims
worthy of public comment, at least to date.

Similarly, Major Media has, until now mostly steered clear of both
Creme and Maitreya, lest it be forced to seriously investigate a potentially
explosive story which might threaten to get out of control. And possibly
shoot off in unpredictable and unwelcome directions for the established
institutions of the world.

Our most charitable image of journalism is the concept that hard-boiled
investigative reporters sleuth down stories without fear or favor,
chasing down all the leads and ferreting out the truth. Just so the
public will know what's going on. This warm and fuzzy image appears,
unfortunately, to be quite seriously at odds with the truth, things
as they really are.

To be sure, the Maitreya story has, on occasion captured the limited
and largely uncomprehending attention of such arbiters of late twentieth
century reality as the news services and media giants: Cable News
Network, the British Broadcasting Company, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting
Network and the Japanese Nippon Television Network, among others.
But such references to Creme, Maitreya or any other aspect of the
story come in snippets, lacking analysis or background information
or, indeed, any real attempt to deal seriously with the facts as they
are known.

But even with the story being swept under the carpet, a number of
individual reporters have over the years, and for a variety of reasons,
taken an interest in the issue, (with sometimes provocative results
as Patricia Pitchon's reports will amply illustrate). Major media
in an organizational sense has, however, clearly relegated the issue
to the same journalistic black hole which contains the awkward and
hard to categorize stories such as milk drinking icons, crosses of
light, crop circles, UFO sightings and "disappearing hitchiker" stories.
Even when serious investigations have been undertaken, major media
seems loathe to share the fruits of such research with a larger audience.

As with a number of these other stories, on-going cover-ups create
an environment of growing mistrust and create credibility problems
of train wreck proportions. Suffice it to say, the skimpy and faint-hearted
media tap dance around the Maitreya story has not been the Fourth
Estate's finest hour and there appears to be no easy or diplomatic
way for the Media to get out of this dilemna without bringing further
unwelcome scrutiny of studied and apparently calculated lack of performance.

CREME'S CHALLENGE TO THE MEDIA

In May, 1982, under somewhat improbable circumstances, BenjaminCreme
issued a challenge to the media of the world to investigate his claims,
a challenge which has, as yet gone largely unanswered by major media.
Serious media attention to the story, Creme promised, will be met
with a positive and accommodating response from Maitreya.

Egos do not appear to be the stumbling block. Maitreya evidently asks
only to be identified as teacher, a title he certainly deserves if
we take into account some 140 short messages on the human condition
published in the early '80's and some dozens of tellingly accurate
predictions and prophesies published in the pages of Share International
Magazine for several years in the late '80's and early '90's.

Nor will Maitreya Himself be pounding on studio doors demanding air
time on the Six O'clock News. Rather, suggests Creme, the media must
and will eventually make the first move, and issue the necessary invitation.
Free Will comes into play here and will evidently not be violated
by the Enlightened Ones no matter how much we may wish it.

What transpires behind the scenes, within and amongst the network
moguls and major newspapers publishers and editors of the world (not
to mention the world of high government officials, leading bankers
and corporate executives and among the leading military and intelligence
agencies of the world), is any body's guess.

All must, at this point, be well aware of the Story That Won't Go
Away, now in print going on two decades, in book, newspaper and magazine
format, on radio, T.V. and short wave, on the internet and, more persuasively
for some, in the personal experiences of many hundreds who have come
forward and testified.

When such a wealth of data is corroborated by individual journalists
of unquestioned sincerity and impeccable repute we seem indeed to
have a story which not only Won't Go Away but, arguably, Should Not
Go Away.

Poor, battered humanity (we might all agree) could collectively use
a Cosmic tune-up in a couple of important departments of human affairs,
such as war and peace, truth and justice, sharing and respect, patience,
light, love and the Will of God.

"I
present this information not as dogma, but for your consideration
only," says Creme, who, as far as any one can discern, is himself
a teacher in the most challenging and provocative sense of that term
and who lives an exemplary life, absent of power tripping , financial
impropriety, personal reward or self-aggrandizement. From my own personal
experience under quite frightening and provocative circumstances of
physical threat, I have seen Benjamin Creme act with great courage
and remarkable cool.

Readers who may wish to follow up on Creme's provocative message and
fascinating claims are urged to contact Tara Center, P.O. Box 971,
North Hollywood, Calif. 91603 for a free monthly newsletter dealing
with the various aspects of this story.

Jonathan Shepard studied politics and economic history and holds
a Ph.D. degree in the latter. He has written several volumes in
these and related fields in addition to newspaper and magazine articles.
Shepard lives on the north coast of California where he has coached
the local high school soccer team for the past decade.

Shepard has met Benjamin Creme on several occasions and has studied
much of the available and related documentation (and media's reaction
to it) concerning this story for more than ten years.